Conservation Priorities

The Biodiversity and Conservation Landscape of the Peninsula of Baja California

The Baja California peninsula is an extraordinarily special place biologically, with many species found nowhere else on earth. Despite our knowledge of its unique species richness and endemism, it has often been challenging for conservation organizations to assemble good scientific data for a landscape view of areas of greatest conservation importance. This project shares data from the scientific community with the conservation priority insights of the conservation community in Baja California.

We include data from over 635,000 birds, plants, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, scorpions, and freshwater fish, and make them readily available online for use in priority setting throughout the region. Lists of priorities, threats, and future directions for our region are highlighted. Results from the project are currently available as GIS layers (https://databasin.org/groups/babffe766c314e-4da68dbad261f4ab9d). In the future, all data will also be available at www.conabio.gob.mx.

Next steps include additional data sharing, and the publication of a peer-reviewed book to be published with CONABIO. Chapters will include Botany; Mammalogy; Entomology; Herpetology; Ornithology; Ichthyology; Non-native taxa; Island taxa; and a synthesis of all taxa combined; also included will be a detailed gap analysis with CONABIO, converting point data into polygon data, generating range maps for as many species as possible, and using the existing models that CONABIO has generated and applying them to our new datasets for higher resolution models for the peninsula. These will include a completeness analysis as well as a gap analysis and priority assessment. Most importantly, this project makes data available for anyone in the conservation community to conduct their own analyses.

We hope that the data compiled in this study will be shared and used to guide resource use, management decisions, and future conservation and scientific research.